Humans have dreamed for centuries to control their surroundings solely by the power of theirminds. These aspirations have been captured by multiple science fiction creations, like theNeuromancer novel by William Gibson or the Brainstorm cinematic movie, to name just a few.Nowadays these dreams are slowly becoming reality due to a variety of brain-computer interfaces(BCI) that detect neural activation patterns and support the control of devices by brain signals.
An important field in which BCIs are being successfully integrated is the interaction withvehicular systems. In this paper we evaluate the performance of BCIs, more specifically a commercialelectroencephalographic (EEG) headset, in combination with vehicle dashboard systemsand highlight the advantages and limitations of this approach. Further, we investigate the cognitiveload that drivers experience when interacting with secondary in-vehicle devices via touchcontrols or a BCI headset. As in-vehicle systems are increasingly versatile and complex, it becomesvital to capture the level of distraction and errors that controlling these secondary systemsmight introduce to the primary driving process. Our results suggest that the control with theEEG headset introduces less distraction to the driver, probably as it allows the eyes of the driverto remain focused on the road. Still, the control of the vehicle dashboard by EEG is efficientonly for a limited number of functions, after which increasing the number of in-vehicle controlsamplifies the detection of false commands.